Third Friday after the Epiphany
Thanks to Jennifer for her comment. I have a similar story with my granddaughter Madeline. Yes, they should have more, and more often. We'll deal with frequency of Holy Communion in a soon forthcoming post.
Today is about posture. What's the best posture for receiving Holy Communion. In the Methodist Church I grew up in we were directed by the ushers to the chancel rail (sometimes erroneously called the altar rail, where we knelt. When the the chancel rail was filled in, the pastor and associate served the elements (no laity ever served). The elements were little round plastic tasting wafers. The wine (juice) was served in tiny cups with barely a taste worth of juice in them. We then remained kneeling till all had been served. The pastor then said a "table dismissal" and we all returned to our pews. The process was very long. We had communion the minimum requirement of times in the Discipline--4 times a year.
When I was in the eleventh grade I was dating a Presbyterian. I asked if I could go to church with her one Sunday. I thought girls would be really impressed that I was I good guy, if I went to church with them. They were having communion. Nobody got up. The ushers passed the trays of bread and juice down the aisles, as if they were offering plates. I may have decided right then that I would never be a Presbyterian.
Later I had another girlfriend who was an Episcopalian (I married this one. She's in the room right next to me now). I went to church with her. Several things were different. The wine was wine. It was served from a common cup. The parishioners came came forward knelt, received, lingered perhaps for a prayer moment, then returned to their pews and knelt to pray on the kneeler in their pew. An Episcopal friend, the woman who introduced Marianne and me, once said to me, "You Methodists might do well to spend more time on your knees." There was continuous flow to and from the chancel rail.
When we started going to Christ UMC in Greensboro in 1983, they were doing communion the same was as in the church I grew up in, with everybody waiting till all were served before the pastor would say a table dismissal. The service was very long. After I had been going there a couple of years I was asked to be Chair of the Worship Committee. Both George Thompson, the pastor, and Ken Carter, the associate (now Bishop Ken Carter and Chair of the United Methodist Council of Bishops), came to the Worship Committee meetings. I soon suggested that we dispense with the table dismissals and let people return to their pews when they finished. My suggestion was readily accepted by George, Ken, and the committee members. We started having continuous flow.
So, we have done sit and kneel. Now it's stand. More specifically it is the method called intinction. You all know it. You walk up the center aisle, get a piece of bread from one server, dunk it in a chalice held by another server, and continue back to your pew without stopping for more than a second. It's very fast. At Christ, Greensboro and at First, N. Wilkesboro, we had both kneeling and intinction stations for those who did not want, often for physical reasons, to kneel. At UUMC everything is intinction, but you do have the option, after you have received the elements, to go kneel at the chancel rail and pray.
So what's high church; what's low church? High church is about God, about showing reverence for God, about experiencing Jesus Christ. Kneeling is reverence. Low church is about the people, making them as comfortable as possible, and moving the service along as expeditiously as possible. Yes, I do seem to be biased on this point.
In Summary:
Kneeling--High Church
Standing--Not so much
Sitting--Low Church
Faithfully,
Christian
1 comment:
Childhood memories! I remember when we first started going to church with Marianne. I thought the Episcopalians were very, very weird. The kneeling at all really confused me. Being a nice Southern girl, and at the time quite obsessed with doing everything right, I was very nervous about kneeling and standing at the right time. I took cues from my step-mother. Eventually I learned how to do it. I still thought it felt a lot like the exercise classes my mother went to with all that standing up and kneeling and repeat. Anyone remember step aerobics?
What really confused me, and now that I reflect on it upset me a bit, was that in the Episcopal church children didn't take communion. The pastor put his hand on our head and said a little blessing. I had always taken communion in the Methodist church. It made me feel unimportant. If I had not been such a good child, I might have stood up and said, "Dude, I'm a triple Preacher's Kid (PK), I got just as much right to take communion as any of these folks!"
When children do what is a different issue, but the differences between the churches were quite interesting to me, and with time to reflect on it, created strong emotions.
I still think the standing and kneeling is weird. But maybe churches would grow if they would create church exercise classes - why not do push ups at certain points in the service? Feel free to share my suggestion. :)
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